England tour of India, Jan 25 - March 11

[Durhamfootman]

worth noting that from 207-2 at the end of day 2, England batter scores then went 18, 0, 41, 13, 6, 9, 4, 1, 4, 11, 3, 7, 4, 15, 16, 0, 16, 33, 1

pretty stark

[meninblue]

Overs batted in 3 tests:
India: 121+69.2 + 112 + 78.3 + 130.5 + 98 (Declared for 4 wickets) = 609 overs. Average innings batted: 66.9
England : 64.3 + 102.1 + 55.5 + 69.2 + 71 + 39.4 = 401.9 overs. Average innings batted: 101.5
England have batted 207.5 overs less than India. England batsmen played ODI type of overs in 5 innings out of 6.


Although better rpo (one aspect of Bazball) can make up for less overs batted, it does not makes opponent players stand under such hot and humid Indian conditions and does not drains the energy levels as much when opponents come to bat. Yashasvi and others would have found it slightly tougher to score as many after having fielded for 150 overs than after fielding for just 71 overs. Even just standing as umpie is a tough job here. Dharmasena was caught asking for water and laughed when he saw it on sight screen The energy drain is significant even just standing down there for so many overs. Also if the first batting side plays lots of overs then the side batting second has to bat on the toughest of day 4 and day 5 in this conditions barring some wickets. Time aspect is also taken out. Neither does it bodes well if the opponent team knows the batting lineup can only bat 0 overs average in an innings or thereabout allowing a shift of median.

India batsmen played ODI type of overs in 2 innings. In fact Indian batsmen have batted poorly in few innings as well. The only innings Indian batting unit has played as a team was the second innings in this 3rd test which looked like India would have posted near to 600 or batted out 150 overs which i expect this team to do in Indian conditions based on past batting lineups. Have to say that the nature of the Rajkot wicket helped.

A for England, imo on Rajkot wickets one just cannot bat for 110.4 overs in two innings. This is where 300 + individual scores have been posted in Ranji cricket. Even Sir Jadeja has a triple out of his three domestic triples in Ranji here i guess. There is absolutely nothing in this wicket even for spinners apart from the rare ball.. This is one wicket in India where the advantage of winning toss is significantly negated. imo this should have been a draw.

If England wins the toss next match, i won't be surprised if the scores are levelled at 2-2. But even after winning toss if you treat test innings as ODI by batting even the toss may become irelevant and break up the long standing tradition of win toss and get in a awesome position to win test.

[meninblue]

Indian top 3 runs scorer this series thus far:

Yashasvi - 545


Shubman - 252
Rohit - 240

[Durhamfootman]

Yashasvi - 545

boy doing good

[Arthur Crabtree]

Should be looking to make batting changes in the next game. But not really anyone to go for. Presumably Lawrence is there as another spin option.

Not much purpose in picking Atkinson or Robinson, who are the other reserves.

Leach doesn't seem to have been replaced.

[alfie]

That was all pretty horrible - unless you're an Indian fan

Last day a nightmare but the inevitable consequence of that unnecessary collapse on Saturday. Once they gave up a serious lead on a pitch that was always going to "go" eventually - though it really only did so on that fourth afternoon - they had no hope batting last. The eventual margin looks awesome but is essentially a footnote.

India really batted perfectly in their second innings to turn the screws on an already tired bowling crew. Even the night watchman did his job - and Jaiswal was terrific. Must be the first player ever to make double centuries in two games in a month and still miss out on PoTM awards to bowlers !

England need to forget the second innings ever happened and set out next week to bat with a bit more control. Good players don't become rubbish overnight so it is more about each man playing in the manner that best suits his ability : party tricks aren't Joe Root's main weapon and he should save them until he has seventy or so on the board . Let Duckett do the crazy stuff because it is his method and works often enough. I reckon they can do better than these 250/300 scores if they apply themselves and mix aggression with common sense so not giving up on the series yet ; though it is going to be every bit as difficult as we all expected before it began. Winning a toss might be handy too.

Other problem is the bowlers who are getting worn down by constantly having to get back in the field too soon after the previous innings. This is always something of a problem with the team's rapid scoring mode ; but made far worse in these cases where it comes with a deficit of well over a hundred each time. Have to see how fitness levels are for the next game but I wouldn't be surprised to see Robinson called into action this time - at least he is well rested.

About the only "positive" note is that Stokes & co have demonstrated that they don't usually go to water after a setback : see the two wins over SA in 2022 following an innings defeat , and the fight back from 2 down in the Ashes. This might be their toughest test yet but let's see what they do about it before we start calling for the Return of Boycott ...

[Arthur Crabtree]

That was all pretty horrible - unless you're an Indian fan :)

I assumed the whole series was going to be like this!

[Durhamfootman]

Other problem is the bowlers who are getting worn down by constantly having to get back in the field too soon after the previous innings. This is always something of a problem with the team's rapid scoring mode ; but made far worse in these cases where it comes with a deficit of well over a hundred each time.

Stokes has acknowledged this and also hinted that he may even bowl himself in the last 2 tests. He says he is now bowling at 100% in the nets and the knee is holding up well, but has also said that the physios still want him to wait until the summer. I guess we'll see

[Durhamfootman]

looks like Stokes is going to bowl. Lots of grumblings about the cracks already in the pitch, so I reckon we'll be back to 3 spinners tomorrow. Maybe a chance for Robinson if Ando and Woody need a rest

[Arthur Crabtree]

No Bumrah. Some other fella makes a debut.

[Durhamfootman]

nope.... 2 spin

Bashir for Rehan and Robinson for Wood the changes

[andy]

Not sure I agree with the side for tomorrow.....bairstow looks shot would have brought Lawrence in for him...he can't do any worse on this tour....would have thought Anderson might have needed a rest....and I think stokes is highly likely to bowl so I would have stuck with Rehan and the 3 spinner approach .....not surprised India have rested bumrah

[Slipstream]

Not sure I agree with the side for tomorrow.....bairstow looks shot would have brought Lawrence in for him...he can't do any worse on this tour....would have thought Anderson might have needed a rest....and I think stokes is highly likely to bowl so I would have stuck with Rehan and the 3 spinner approach .....not surprised India have rested bumrah

I would have thought so as well. Anderson was saying that he covered 34 miles over the Test with the left/right handers.

[meninblue]

England win the toss and opt to bat first.

Massive chance for England to level 2-2.

India needs to play extremely well to draw this test.

[bigfluffylemon]

Looks like a tough pitch.